ACCOLADES
A Love for the Game of Bridge Leads to the ‘World Series’ in China INTERVIEW WITH KESWICK LIFE The 14th Red Bull World Series of Bridge was held in Sanya, Hainan, China from October 10th-25th. Keswick native, John McAllister had the honor of participating in this event for the first time.
suggestion John hired professional Israeli players Yaniv Zak and Michael Barel to play on his team in the Open Teams event. Over the course of the two week World Bridge Series, McAllister and Zur-Campanile competed as a partnership in a total of four events. The team of McAllister, Zur-Campanile, Bilde and Madsen advanced to the round of 16 in the Mixed Teams competition before losing to a strong Chinese team. Playing in the Mixed Pairs, McAllister and Campanile had a bye into the semi-final by virtue of their strong showing but failed to reach the two-day final.
John grew up playing all sorts of card games with his family, with hearts being his favorite. One night, when his aunt Kathleen was visiting the family at their home in the Southwest Mountains, they sat down to play hearts.
When she remarked that bridge was a vastly superior game, bridge became the entertainment that evening and John’s love for the game was born. John’s parents, Mary and Ralph Morony, nurtured his love for the game and also happen to be avid players themselves. His sisters Melissa McAllister and Annie Morony would often draw the short straw to make up the fourth for the four player game; however, his middle sister, Chris Perot, was simply not interested! Other regulars in the Morony family game included Mary and Ralph’s friends from Grace Church, Betty and Don Chester. When John moved back to Charlottesville in 2002, Melissa hooked him up with a group of friends that were taking weekly lessons with local bridge teacher, Chouky Neale. Chouky taught John many of the fundamental aspects of the game and introduced him to some of the basic rules of bidding and card play. Chouky also introduced John to duplicate bridge, which is the primary form of the game being played in bridge tournaments throughout the world. A fellow Keswick area native, Jaffray Woodriff, gave John the opportunity of a lifetime to work for his group at Quantitative Investment Management, located here in Charlottesville. While this limited his ability to participate in the large afternoon games at the Jefferson Bridge Association, it afforded him the opportunity to watch someone passionately living out their own dream. Jaffray’s dedication to his craft and attention to detail ultimately inspired John to leave QIM in order to set out on his own path after seven fruitful years there. First stop, the day he retired from
After day one of the two day Open Team Qualifying, in what McAllister describes as the biggest thrill in his bridge playing career, the McAllister team was in fourth place overall in a field of over 130 teams. The Open Teams qualifier included both the best teams and top bridge playing partnerships in the world. Unfortunately, that success was short-lived as the team came crashing back to earth by losing the first seven consecutive matches on day two before finally earning a win in the eighth and final qualifying match of the round robin. Sadly, at that point the team had no chance of qualifying for the 32 team knockout portion of the event. John McAllister at the 14th Red Bull World Series of Bridge, held in Sanya, Hainan, China.
Quantitative, was the Spring North American Bridge Championships (“NABC”) in Memphis, Tennessee put on by the American Contract Bridge League (“ACBL”). By this point, John had hired semi-professional bridge player Rob Brady to be both his teacher and playing partner. Rob organized a team of junior bridge players to compete for the prestigious Vanderbilt Cup. While his team got knocked out on the opening day, John loved the logic and inferential reasoning which is the lifeblood of the game and has since attended each of the ACBL’s triennial NABC’s that have been held since. While being interviewed for this story, John is currently participating in the Fall Nationals in Providence, Rhode Island. He is playing on a team there with his professional partner from Sanya, Migry Zur-Campanile. Migry and John were set up to play together in preparation for the World Championships by professional Danish player Christina Lund Madsen, who also sometimes works part-time for the World Bridge Federation which puts on the World Championships.
The Red Bull World Series is an open world championship, which means that any player that is a registered member of their own country’s National Bridge Organization (“NBO”) is eligible to participate. Madsen invited John to play with her and rising Danish superstar Dennis Bilde in the Mixed Teams portion of the event in January 2013. John quickly jumped at the opportunity to play with the two dynamic young Danes and asked Christina for a recommendation on a female partner for himself. Madsen did not hesitate in recommending Zur-Campanile, who was just coming off winning the prestigious Venice Cup in Bali, Indonesia in September 2013. Migry and John had immediate chemistry at the table where, in their first event playing together, the prestigious Platinum Pairs, they finished twelfth in a world class field. A win in the fabled New York Reisinger in late May, playing with recently married Dana Berkowitz and Chris Willenken, earned the team a write up in the New York Times Bridge Column. Things were going well in preparation for Sanya, so at Zur-Campanile’s
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McAllister and Zur-Campanile rebounded by making it through the two qualifying sessions to the Open Pairs Final round and, thanks to a strong last day, finished in 40th place overall. There a number of options for both learning and playing bridge in the Charlottesville-Albermarle area. The Jefferson Bridge Association hosts four open games weekly including a novice game on Monday nights. Also, many local country clubs offer bridge lessons and games as a part of their social calendar. McAllister also encourages anyone in learning more about the game to visit the website for the documentary film on bridge which he and local filmmakers Derek Sieg and Jeremy Goldstein are producing, find it at www.bridgedocumentary.com. The American Contract Bridge League has a variety of initiatives aimed at promoting bridge to the next generation of players; interested parties can check out their offerings at www.acbl.org.
KESWICK LIFE